Hey Everyone....bet you thought we would never finish this!!!!! But for our own sanity and as its been a labour of love for over a year now here are the finishing touches.....

Well where did we leave off....think we were just about to leave Hoi An after getting our fabulous clothes made and were heading to Nha Trang to laze on a beach for a few days at least!! All be it a day late as we managed to get the time on our train tickets wrong...thought we were on another overnight journey then found out 10 hours after the train had left that it was actually a day train and left at 11am not pm....nightmare!

Never mind...we thought we might then have a more comfortable journey...how wrong were we! Ended up in really squashed seats for the 11 hour duration with as many people as they could squeeze on along with the stench of rotten fish from some sort of food they were serving throughout the journey...ahhh traveling 1st class…you cant beat it!!!!!Another perk was the squat toilets, you cant beat them on a train traveling on bumpy tracks….Amanda actually managed to hold her bladder the entire 11 hour journey!

Arrived in Nha Trang in the evening looking forward to a couple of days lazing on the beach....and guess what.....yes you guessed it, p*****g down with rain it was! However the rain stayed off in the morning long enough for us to have the morning each day sunning ourselves on the golden beach of Nha Trang and eating as much fresh prawns, crab and fruit as we wanted from the beach vendors.Although just a little note of caution with regards to eating from the beach vendors…double check how fresh the prawns are before they put them on the coals or you could have a couple of days with the company of our friend Mr Bombay Trots….not the best with another 8 hour bus journey ahead of you!!!We spent the nights in one of the many bars or restaurants with the usual accompaniment of Tiger beer… Just the relaxation we needed although cut a little short due to the mishap with the trains!!

After Nha Trang we headed to Mui Ne via another very comfortable bus journey..yeah right!! You cannot believe how and where the Vietnamese can sleep…. not one of them were awake through the bus journey no matter how many bumps the driver aimed for nor how many times he engaged his horn (which seemed to us like every minute of the journey!!).However if you knew the wee hour in the morning they left their med to start their morning work you wouldn't blame them…..but oh how jealous, would love to have slept through the journey and missed the lovely toilet stop we had!You guessed it squat toilets again with a bath of water next to it along with a bucket to flush them down…makes you appreciate the home comforts!

Once again we arrived in the pouring rain and unlike in Nha Trang there was no sign of it letting up…so being the resourceful travelers that we are we landed ourselves in a lovely straw clad pub then ate and drank our way into the evening….we knew it was time to get back to the hotel when the creatures of the night started attacking us…honestly we weren't hallucinating….you have never seen beetles the size of these, flying ones at that, and they had a crazy habit of doing a nose-dive straight at you!! As you can imagine I was totally freaked out by these things and we headed back to the bar at the hotel.

The following day we had arranged for a trip around Mui Ne where we went too see their fishing village and the unusual round boats they go fishing … have a look at them … wouldn't catch us in them for all the motorbikes in Vietnam!Then we went to the Red Canyon .. and would you believe it … it does what it says on the tin ..a huge canyon created by red sand dunes compacted by the rain, was pretty special looking actually however wouldn't like to be in there in the middle of one of their storms!Last of all was the cleverly named Yellow Sand Dunes for some sandboarding which is always great fun …. That's once you have managed to get through the masses of kids who are trying to sell you their board to ride on!!!

We left Mui Ne the next day as the weather was more for ducks than sunbathing on the beach and we were faced by another 8 hour bus journey to Ho Chi Minh City ….Arrived there in the pouring rain once again…just incase you hadn't realized by now we had hit Vietnam in their rainy season and sunshine was at a premium!!!

Headed off to the Cu Chi Tunnels which is an immense network of tunnels used by the Viet Cong'sin the Vietnam war to cover large areas of ground undetected by the Americans, at one stage the network covered some 250 kilometres, over 3 levels and dug by hand, amazing feat!!!The tunnels themselves were used for everything from supply routes, hospitals and weapon caches to living, cooking and sleeping quarters.

If you think the tunnels are an amazing feat of human ingenuity then the ventilation shafts they created to look like termite mounds and the lethal hand made booby traps were out of this world.

The tunnels themselves had been widened for Westerners to use as you honestly could not fit through the tiny spaces the Viet-Cong used.Even the widened version was a scary experience as you felt at any moment you would get stuck as you tried to crawl through the tiny spaces…and the humidity didn't help either!!We also had the chance to shoot an AK47 on the make-shift rifle range at the tunnels, Greg was really in his element here and I also had a go, luckily they were mounted as I would have landed a good few feet away if they weren't.

While in Ho Chi Minh we also took a cyclo ride, basically a bike with a seat on the front, which are driven generally by old war veterans who can tell you a story or 2 so are really worth it.They take you around the city, to the markets, the war museums and for lunch….which was of course on us!!!You get taken to their local haunt, drink some local beer and eat some local food along with learning a little Vietnamese.I know this sounds like a really laid back experience as we weren't dong any of the peddling but remember our words of warning on the number of motorbikes trawling the street….makes for a few near misses at junctions!!

The war museum was really quite heart breaking, we didn't really understand quite how violent and long lasting the American war in Vietnam was….and the casualties that have been left behind til this day, the effects the chemicals had on future generations was awful.It also gave you an idea of the conditions the captives were held in and the barbaric torture they went through…it will stick in our minds for a long time to come.On a more lighthearted side they had a room filled with romances and marriages throughout the war and unbelievable stories of love, marriage, births and deaths in the Cu Chi Tunnels.Well worth a visit if you are in the city.

We left Ho Chi Minh in our first mode of comfortable transport in a while…Vietnam Airlines…great flight….and it took a fraction of the time it had taken us to get from North to South!!

Arrived in our hotel in Hanoi again to a birthday cake and bubbly….you guessed it was Amanda's birthday.Headed out for a night on the tiles, a slap up meal, cocktails, shots, many, many bottles of beer all for a nominal sum of money and woke up with a raging hangover the following day!!Luckily we didn't have the overnight train to Sapa until the following night!

Headed off to Sapa for a few days of trekking in the mountain villages.The journey there was an overnight train (as usual never slept a wink)…arrived 7am, then an hour bus journey up through the mountains to Sapa, with some seriously amazing scenery.We had an hour to get ourselves sorted with breakfast and a quick change then we headed straight out on our 8 hour trek.We had a local tour guide who spoke amazing English and the company of some local village women who were on their way back from the morning markets with their provisions for the day.These women trek to the market and back every day (roughly 15kms) and a lot of them carry their babies on their backs in a papoose (we never even noticed them until we heard a cry from what we thought was a rucksack!!).

The trek takes you down through the hills, past all the paddy fields being tended by their owners and their water buffalo…we seen a heard of water buffalo being hearded down through the steep hills by kids no older than 8 or 9, and the kids back home think they have a hard life!!We then stop for a quick drink at our guides home.This gave the local kids time to swarm around us and sell us all some walking sticks…we had no idea why we were buying them but our guide advised we did!We then understood when we saw the muddy hill we were about to descend and it had been raining heavy all morning.

You will see from one of the photos that we were having a few problems getting down the muddy hills and paddy fields..one in particular where you can see the size of the women villagers in comparison to Greg (or Andre the Giant to them).There were a few occasions when we nearly ended up on our backsides.

Stopped for lunch in one of the villages and were treated to some Pho Bo, omelette and juice…which is a lot for these villagers to provide as they don't have much.

Headed on through the villages where we were followed by the lady villagers who had helped us down the hill….we bought many goods from them for their services…we also had their kids follow us for the rest of the journey trying to wear us down!

The rest of the trek was again through many muddy paths, through the paddy fields, villages where we were taken through some local homes and schools. Although the trek was amazing we were happy when we seen the end in sight….don't think there was one part of us without muddy stains.

The following day we had a rather bumpy and treacherous journey through the mountains again to Bac Ha market, a traditional Vietnamese market with the obvious tourist pulls they have all learnt over the years.We bought a few trinkets on the way then headed back to the town for our last overnight train to Hanoi.

We leave Hanoi tomorrow and look forward to a few days shopping and a few nights staying in luxury in Hong Kong before we head back home to Scotland……it's really weird thinking about coming home but we are both really looking forward to it.

See you all soon

(well we are actually sick of the sight of you all by now, we have been home for 4 months!! Better late than never when it comes to finishing this!! Oh and we are only joking!!)

Luv,Maz and Flem xxx